Origin
Luornu Durgo was born on Cargg, a planet with three suns, which grants its Carggite inhabitants the ability to split themselves into three identical bodies. She left her homeworld after hearing of tryouts for the Legion of Super-Heroes, and she had each of her bodies demonstrate her power to the Legion’s three founders (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad) separately. Luornu then surprised them when they gathered to find they had each been approached by the same girl simultaneously. This convinced them to make her their first new Legionnaire recruit, and she joined the team under the code name Triplicate Girl.
Creation
Triplicate Girl (now Duplicate Girl) was created in 1961 by writer Jerry Siegel (the co-creator of Superman) and artist Jim Mooney. She became the very first Legion recruit following its three founding members, making her the fourth Legionnaire overall and the Legion’s second female member (after founding member Saturn Girl).
Character Evolution
Original Continuity: New Earth
Luornu was the fourth hero to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, and she quickly developed a heavy crush on Superboy. After successfully completing many missions as Triplicate Girl, she suffered tragedy when Brainiac 5’s robot Computo went rogue and killed one of her three bodies. To the surprise of the Legionnaires and in defiance of traditional Carggite physiology, Luornu’s other two bodies managed to survived the loss of the third. She adopted the codename Duo Damsel, with the ability to split into two forms. She spent time in the 20th century hiding with other Legionnaires from the powerful sorcerer Mordru. It was during this adventure that Luornu finally accepted that Superboy would never return her affections and started dating Bouncing Boy (Chuck Taine), who harbored a crush on Luornu. Chuck and Luornu became one of the Legion’s most enduring couples and eventually the Legion’s first married couple.
Triplicate Girl’s first costume was a purple miniskirt with an orange belt and cape, a color combination the character has retained throughout her history (though the purple has varied in hue from lavender to dark blue, depending on the era and continuity). After she lost her third body and became Duo Damsel, the orange and purple in her costume was split down the middle and when she split into two bodies, one wore purple and the other orange. Like many Legionnaires, Luornu underwent a sexy makeover in the 1970’s, wearing what was essentially a half-purple half-orange bathing suit with perforated thigh-high yellow boots and a yellow cape. In the 1980’s her costume changed to full body tights and the boots and cape were abandoned.
Reboot: Earth-247
After the events of Zero Hour, a new Legion continuity was formed on Earth-247. Luornu was a native of Cargg once again, a planet where everyone could split into three identical duplicates with identical personalities. However, Luornu was unique among Carggites in that each of her duplicates exhibited distinctly different personalities. Unfortunately Luornu suffered an unhappy home life; at a young age she was abandoned by her father and her mother became an alcoholic. Luornu was then raised by her grandmother who encouraged the differences between the Luornu’s separated bodies. But after her grandmother passed away, Luornu fell into the custody of a Carggite government that frowned upon non-synchronized behavior. Lu was placed in a special institution, almost like an insane asylum, to ‘deprogram’ the individuality out of Lu’s selves. Feeling tortured, she managed to escape and came across the third richest sentient in the world, R.J. Brande. Brande took pity on Luornu and took her in. He gave her a job as his secretary and legally adopted her as his foster daughter.
Threeboot: Earth-Prime
The Earth-Prime version of Luornu Durgo hailed from the planet of Cargg and was the planet’s only survivor following a nuclear war. Plagued with amnesia, she woke up to a post-apocalyptic landscape, leaving no one behind but wild animals. When confronted against a hungry creature, Luornu found herself able to duplicate herself, a natural defense for natives of her homeworld. After she caused the animal to flee, she decided to repopulate the planet with her doppelgangers. Her various bodies each studied different trades from literature she found and with her numbers were able to quickly rebuild her world. Luornu reached the limit of clones she could make and populated Cargg, sometimes combining together to amass the knowledge of every clone and spread it evenly.
Retroboot: New Earth
The “Retroboot” returned the Legion to a close approximation of the original team prior to the Five Year Gap. Luornu was once again Duo Damsel and wore her classic DD costume. During the Lightning Saga, one of Duo Damsel’s two bodies traveled to the 21st century to join Karate Kid on an assignment. Because her other body was still in the 31st century she couldn’t duplicate, so while on the mission she called herself “Una.” Tragically, both Una and Karate Kid were killed in action in the 21st century. But when Una died, Luornu’s single remaining body in the 31st century somehow received a major power upgrade, gaining the ability to split into any number of bodies. Luornu changed her name to Duplicate Damsel and later to Duplicate Girl. She and her husband Bouncing Boy joined the battle against Superboy-Prime the Legion of Super-Villains, she had just returned from their third honeymoon at the back beaches of Ventura. So far, Luornu has opted to remain an instructor at the Legion Academy rather than rejoin the Legion with her greatly enhanced powers.
As Duplicate Girl, Luornu has gone back to a variation of her sexy 70’s-era Duo Damsel costume from original continuity, though the briefs have become a miniskirt, her gloves are now shoulder length, and she no longer wears a cape.
Major Story Arcs
Original Continuity: New Earth
Lelith
On an early mission as Duo Damsel, Luornu’s second body traveled to the planet Ikros, where she met and fell in love with a hero named Nam’Lor. While on the planet, Luornu’s separated body somehow became corrupted and evil, and she began calling herself “Lelith.” In a demonstration of her ruthlessness, Lelith ordered Nam’Lor to kill Bouncing Boy (who harbored a crush on Luornu but was not yet her boyfriend). Nam’Lor refused to do so and finally determined that his own ‘Hyber-Aura’ (which was the source of his powers) had adversely affected Luornu’s mind and caused her to become evil, so he abandoned her. The effect of his hyber-aura wore off and Lelith became Luornu again. But when she left Ikros and merged back into one body, Luornu found that Lelith’s mind was still present and sealed off from her own mind, and she had to fight to expel the evil from her second body. This incident marked the first time that one of Luornu’s separated bodies developed an adverse personality.
Marriage to Bouncing Boy
When Bouncing Boy lost his powers (temporarily as it turned out), he decided to propose marriage to Luornu, they became the Legion’s first married couple. At the wedding, Luornu’s second body was kidnapped by Starfinger and she temporarily lost her duplication power due to the villain coveting it for himself. But his plan was foiled by the Legion and Luornu’s two selves were reunited. After the ceremony, both Chuck and Lu resigned from active duty and became Legion reservists (due to Legion bylaws, married Legionnaires could not serve full-time). But after Chuck’s powers returned, he and Luornu often returned to duty to help the Legion on missions. Luornu also joined the Legion Espionage Squad, a special branch of the Legion that handled covert missions. She also decided to become teacher along with her husband and ran the Legion Academy, a school designed to train prospective Legion members. They enjoyed running the Academy so much that when the Legion Constitution changed its bylaws to allow married couples, they opted to remain reserves.
Losing Another Body
Years later, Luornu and Chuck helped form a new Legion of Substitute Heroes with the retired Cosmic Boy and Night Girl. When the Superboy from the Pocket Universe was killed by the Time Trapper, Duo Damsel was devastated, realizing that she still loved him. She joined a conspiracy with other Legion members, including Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5 and Mon-El, to made a pact to break the Legion code and kill the Time Trapper. In the ensuing battle, Duo Damsel lost another duplicate (the one that wore purple) and was left powerless with a single body. She continued on as an instructor at the Legion Academy but decided her fighting days were behind her after losing two of her selves, rejecting Brainiac 5’s gift of a force field belt so that she could continue being a heroine.
Five Years Later
The Legion Academy become the United Planets Military Academy after the Legion disbanded due to the devastation caused by the Magic Wars. Luornu and Chuck remained instructors with several of their former students despite the change. When the Legion re-formed, the two continued to assist their friends where they could, but were usually busy with other duties in assisting the U.P. militia. One day, Luornu was kidnapped in the middle of the night and Chuck had to go to the Legion for help. Several others had gone missing too — all Legionnaires who had been party to the conspiracy to kill the Time Trapper years ago. Glorith, who had reshaped the timeline with herself as the Time Trapper, was now the villain the Legion had conspired to kill in this continuity. They had unknowingly failed; Glorith using her age-altering powers to restore herself as well as Luornu’s kidnapped second body, which now acted as her faithful servant. But Luornu was eventually set free, thanks to her second body turning on Glorith. During this adventure, Luornu also discovered that she now had force field powers — the belt Brainy had given her years ago had internalized its power within her physiology just to be safe. Luornu returned home with her second body and a new super power. She still opted to remain with the U.P. militia. But shortly afterward, this continuity was wiped out by the Zero Hour event.
Reboot: Earth-247
Joining the Legion
After billionaire R. J. Brande was rescued from an attempted robbery by three super-powered teenagers, he was inspired to finance a team of super-heroes called the Legion, and asked Luorno to use her duplication talent and track down each of his rescuers. Luornu did so, and then aided the teens by helping to clear the United Planet assembly hall during a terrorist attack. Luornu’s actions that day inspired the three founding Legionnaires (Saturn Girl, Live Wire, and Cosmic Boy) to invite her to be their first recruit. Luornu took the code name of Triad and became a stalwart member, serving consistently with the team save for a period of time where she had to recover from wounds dealt to her by members of the bigoted White Triangle terrorist group. When several Legionnaires became stranded in the 20th century, Triad was willing became stranded with them so the two teams of Legionnaires could meet up in order to bring Cosmic Boy important medical equipment to save his life. She returned with the stranded Legionnaires and served until the team was disbanded by the government after a Stargate tragedy cost half the team.
Running R.J. Brande’s Business
During the year without a Legion, R.J. Brande had to go into hiding while Luornu took over his business. She handled the responsibility surprisingly well and helped cover for R.J. as he secretly set out to build Legion World and organize the future of his team of heroes. When Legionnaires thought dead resurfaced later from a lost galaxy, Triad was quick to come to their aid and reorganized the Legion of Super-Heroes along with the others. Due to her great multitasking ability, she often took charge of Legion World’s communication hub. She continued to serve with the team until the end of Earth-247, where the Legionnaires were lost in the timestream. Following an adventure where the Legions of three different worlds came together, Triad and her fellow Legionnaires decided to venture into the Multiverse as the new Wanderers to help others without a time or home.
Threeboot: Earth-Prime
Joining the Legion
In time, Cargg was visited by members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Three clones, combining into one, decided to leave with them, to investigate the United Planets and the Legion as well. They took the codename Triplicate Girl. She was a member of the Legion for a year, enjoying adventures and trying new things, before she returned to her home planet. However, when Triplicate Girl reached Cargg, her other selves found her too unfamiliar. They refused to assimilate with Triplicate Girl, making her feel lost. She returned to the Legion, serving stalwartly and dating Element Lad until she and Karate Kid were approached in the middle of a mission by persons unknown. They pleaded the two heroes to come with them quickly, weighing their work in their own time with the peril their visitors faced. Whatever it was, Triplicate Girl and Karate Kid agreed to go with their visitors. The storyline was never resolved before the title was canceled.Triplicate Girl showed a great deal of loyalty to the Legion’s first leader, Cosmic Boy. She had gone on dates with various Legionnaires, including Sun Boy, Element Lad, and Ultra Boy, simply to divine information from them for Cos.
Powers and Abilities
Duplication
Triplicate Girl (Original Continuity): As Triplicate Girl, Luornu had the natural Carggite ability to split herself into three identical bodies. When she assimilated back together, she gained the knowledge that each body had experienced while separated. Though her three bodies were shown to bicker on occasion, they were generally portrayed as being completely harmonious with each other.
Duo Damsel (Original Continuity): After one of her bodies was murdered by Computo, Luornu could only split into two identical bodies. To reflect this loss, she changed her name to Duo Damsel and her costume’s orange/purple color scheme became split down the middle. Her ability to survive and fully operate despite the loss of her third body was considered unique among her race and she retained full membership in the Legion.
Una (Original Continuity): Near the end of original Legion continuity, Luornu’s second body was destroyed in a battle with one the Legion’s greatest enemies, the Time Trapper. Though once again she defied the odds and survived the loss of yet another body, with only one body remaining she was essentially powerless. She changed her code name to Una and resigned from active duty.
Triad (Earth-247): Unlike other incarnations, the reboot (Earth-247) Triad’s bodies manifested three separate and distinct personalities who shared a mental and physical link, which was considered highly unusual among Carggites. One personality was her “normal” self, the second was aggressive and extroverted, and the third was shy and introverted. Because of her separate personalities she preferred to remain in triplicated form. At one point each body also manifested very different physical characteristics to reflect their different personalities (though they still had the same facial features): The aggressive one became unusually tall and strong, the shy one became much smaller and faster, and the “normal” personality remained the same size.
Triplicate Girl (Earth-Prime): The “threeboot” Luornu was different from other incarnations, in that while on her home planet of Cargg she could apparently create an unlimited number of duplicates. However, she could not duplicate once off the planet. Eventually three of her bodies decided to combine into one body and leave the planet, since in this manner she could still split into three separate bodies while away from Cargg. The result was that this Luornu essentially had the same powers as the Triplicate Girl of original continuity, despite a notably different origin. However, the vast number of Luornu duplicates still remaining on Cargg rejected assimilation with the Triplicate Girl Luornus when they tried to return home, leaving Triplicate Girl on her own and completely isolated from her native Carggite bodies.
Duplicate Girl/Damsel (Retroboot): Luornu finally received a major power upgrade in current Legion continuity. She now has the power to split herself into an apparently endless number of identical bodies no matter where she is. It is not yet known if there is any upper limit to her duplication ability. To reflect her newfound power she changed her code name to Duplicate Damsel and then to Duplicate Girl, though she has gone back to wearing a variation of her classic 1970’s Duo Damsel costume.
Unarmed Combat
In all of her forms, Luornu has mastered a specialized Carggite form of martial arts called Trijitsu, which was developed by her people to take full advantage of three forms fighting simultaneously. Now that she can create an unlimited number of duplicates as Duplicate Girl, Lournu can fight like a virtual army acting in concert, making her a truly formidable opponent.
Equipment
As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Duplicate Girl possesses a Legion Flight Ring. The ring gives its wearer the ability to fly, the speed and range of which is determined by the wearer’s willpower. It also acts as a long-range communicator (enabling constant vocal contact with other Legionnaires, even across vast distances of space), a signal device, and a navigational compass, all powered by a micro-computer built inside the ring.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5′ 6″
Weight: 130 lbs
Eyes: Brown (left), Violet (right)
Hair: Brown
Other Versions
Five Years Later: Batch SW6
After the Five Year Gap, a younger version of Luornu mysteriously appeared, along with younger versions of all the Legion characters. They were initially called “Batch SW6” since they were believed to be Dominator-created clones of the early Legion. Unlike the current Luornu, who was now Duo Damsel, this younger Luornu still had her third body and the codename Triplicate Girl. It was later revealed that Batch SW6 were time-paradox duplicates of the Legion, rather than clones. The younger Luornu and her teammates went on to become the protectors of New Earth, calling themselves the Legionnaires and starring in their own series with that title. To further differentiate herself from the original Luornu, the SW6 Luornu changed her codename to Triad (a name that carried over to Reboot continuity) and changed her costume. She served with the team until Zero Hour, when the elder Luornu and Triad merged together to help right the timestream and create a new future alongside their respective teammates (this new future became the Earth-247 Reboot reality).
Triplicate
“Triplicate” was a Bizarro version of the character, with the dubious power to split herself into three different pieces of her body.
Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century
Triplicate Girl appeared in several issues Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century.
Multiple Maid/Myriad
In a DC/Marvel crossover series, Multiple Maid was an amalgamation of Triplicate Girl and the Marvel character Multiple Man, who also has the power of duplication. She was a member of the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099. She later became known as Myriad.
Castles In the Air
Lournu and her two duplicate bodies appeared as a trio of priestesses in the Elseworlds story Castles in the Air, published in Legionnaires Annual #1. In this reality, the Legion became a futuristic version of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. The three Luornus wore medieval-style robes patterned after the Earth-247 Triad costume, but rather than being identical, each of the three robes featured a different design.
Superboy’s Legion
Triplicate Girl appeared as a member of the Legion in Superboy’s Legion, an Elseworlds reality in which Superboy arrived on Earth in the 30th century, rather than the 20th. This reality’s Luornu closely resembled the original version of Triplicate Girl and wore a variation of the original purple miniskirt & orange cape costume.
Other Media
Television
Superman: The Animated Series
Triplicate Girl, wearing her Earth-247 Triad costume, was depicted among several Legionnaires in the 30th century in the Superman: The Animated Series episode New Kids in Town. She only had a cameo appearance with no lines.
Legion of Super-Heroes Animated Series
Triplicate Girl appeared as a regular character in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series. She was voiced by actress Kari Wahlgren. Unlike the comic book version, animated Triplicate Girl had hair that was three different colors — orange, purple, and white — and when she triplicated, each separate body had one of the three colors, with a matching costume. During the first season, she became Bouncing Boy’s biggest cheerleader and was overjoyed when he was elected leader.
In the second season, her white third body was ‘erased’ due to a temporal accident on an adventure in the 40th century. Luornu took the loss of her third body hard, even brushing aside concern from Bouncing Boy at times. Luornu changed her code name to Duo Damsel and her appearance changed to reflect her mourning. The white in her hair and costume became black. Later that season the time stream was corrected and the white third body returned, to the delight of the other two.
Popular Recognition
Citing her ability to create an instant “threesome” (or more) for any romantic partner, Duplicate Girl (in her Triplicate Girl incarnation) was ranked 33rd in Comic Buyer’s Guide’s 100 Sexiest Women in Comics. She was the second-sexiest Legionnaire to appear on the list, after Shadow Lass.